Welcome to the Fern podcast, as the season turns.

Released on the first of the month, each episode will be following the changing landscape of the seasons,

from the moon and the stars to the tides and the trees.

I'm Leah Lainters, author of The Almanac, a seasonal guide,

and this podcast is created by Fern,

makers of small batch organic perfume,

who blend, barrel age and bottle four fragrances a year,

released at the equinoxes and solstices.

We hope that this brief guide to the month ahead will awaken you to the rhythms of the year

and help you to settle deeper into the seasons.

May is a month when our pagan roots poke above the surface a little more determinedly than usual.

May Day, once called Beltane, is a festival we can't seem to resist celebrating,

and there still exist rich traditions involving flower-crowned girls, green and be-ribboned men, hobby horses and more up and down the country.

Perhaps it is down to the irresistible nature of this moment in the year.

Early May is when the slow and halting progress from winter to summer finally becomes a stampede,

and fresh green leaves and white blossom break out all over.

Why wouldn't we celebrate?

The month is possibly named after the Greek goddess Maya, associated with fertility, the land, and growth.

More prosaically, the Anglo-Saxons called it three milky, the month when cows were eating the abundant new grass and could be milked three times a day.

Hawthorne, known as Mayflower, is the dominant and abundant flower of the month, filling the countryside with a white froth, a sure sign that finally, from time to time, clouts can be cast.

The oak tree in May.

By May, our oak is in young leaf, its twisting branches frilled with lime green.

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